Saturday, April 16, 2011

Jack Brennan Signs With The Maroons

Speaking of the engagements made by Ted Sullivan at New Orleans for the Lucas nine, McGinnis said: "Wolfe is a fair batter, an excellent fielder and one of the best runners I have ever seen. He is a young lawyer and is strictly temperate. The Boston and Chicago clubs had tried to get him to leave New Orleans, but could not do it, and Sullivan must have held out a strong inducement to secure him. Brennan had not played ball for eight months, but he stood right up and took Mullane's fiercest balls in fine style. Some of the boys thought Tony was trying to knock him out, but if he was he didn't succeed. Brennan's weak point is his throwing. At the bat he is a strong man.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 22, 1883

I'm not sure who Wolfe is but Brennan is Jack Brennan, who appears to have signed on with the Maroons while playing with Sullivan's touring club. Jumbo McGinnis, the source of the report, was also on tour with Sullivan's club.

Thanks David. Rumors were flying fast and furious about who Lucas was signing and a lot of it was nothing but b.s. Lucas actually did a pretty good job of setting things straight in the press but that didn't stop the rumors from flying around. Combine that with Sullivan's activities and it's kind of tough to really figure out who Lucas was interested in, who he was targeting and who signed when.

But we're pretty much at the end of all of that activity. By the end of November, Lucas had what he thought was his team in place. Of course, it wasn't that easy and he would lose some of the guys he thought he had under contract. The bottom line, however, is that most of the work of putting the club together was done in November of 1883.

This blog is no more. It has ceased to be. It's expired and gone to meet its maker. It's a stiff. Bereft of life. It rests in peace. Its metabolic processes are now history. It's kicked the bucket. It's shuffled off this mortal coil, run down the curtain, and joined the bleedin' choir eternal. This is an ex-blog.

Welcome To TGOG

The goal of this blog is to tell the story of the history of 19th century St. Louis baseball and to serve as a resource for 19th century baseball researchers. It is, essentially, an online research journal. If you have any comments, criticisms or suggestions, feel free to contact me at thisgameofgames@gmail.com.

The research is, as always, ongoing.

"Baseball is the very symbol, the outward and visible expression of the drive and push and rush and struggle of the raging, tearing, booming nineteenth century." Mark Twain, 1889.